Low crude oil prices help market to surge higher

Mumbai -- The market opened with positive bias in the morning on the back of fall in crude oil prices and unchanged key interest rates. Index heavy weights like Tata Motors, ITC, Satyam Computer, M&M, BHEL, Bharti Airtel and ACC are trading led by fresh buying. In the morning trade session, the BSE 30-share Sensex has surged by 32 points at 11886 and NSE 50-share Nifty is up by 10 points to 3464. Hindustan Petroleum, OBC, BPCL, Maruti, Britannia, Bajaj Auto and Dabur are the key gainers among the 50-scrips of Nifty.

An Indian public sector petroleum company, ONGC has dipped by 0.7% to Rs. 1192. The Board of directors of the company in its meeting held on September 06, 2006, gave its consent to investment proposal worth Rs. 23bn for re-development of Heera and South Heera fields. The scrip has touched an intra-day high of Rs. 1204 and a low of Rs. 1189 and has recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.

However, Oil & Gas stocks are up on back of fall in crude oil prices. A petroleum refining enterprise, HPCL has rallied by 2.8% to Rs. 306, BPCL, one of India's largest petroleum refining corporations, has surged by 1.5% to Rs. 382 as reports state that the company has announced their plans to buy sugarcane fields in Brazil to secure imports of ethanol, another petroleum company, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) has advanced by 1.2% to Rs. 514 and the leading integrated oil and gas company, Essar Oil has surged by 3.4% to Rs. 57.

Auto stocks continue their momentum led by buying interest. Maruti has added by 2.4% to Rs. 935 after the company along with Suzuki declared that they would invest Rs. 25bn on Diesel Engine plant, Hero Honda has advanced by 1% to Rs. 717, M&M has rallied by 0.8% to Rs. 650 and Tata Motors has surged by 0.7% to Rs. 904 after the company announced its plan to spend Rs. 120bn in a four year span, to expand capacity and develop new products.

An association of Reliance Communications and Nokia to market the sleek Nokia 1255 mobile handset has pushed the Reliance Comm. higher. The company has surged by 2.9% to Rs. 310. The scrip has touched an intra-day high of Rs. 314 and a low of Rs. 303 and has recorded volumes of over 25,00,000 shares on NSE.